December

SPIELBERG'S ALIEN REDUX, TOMMY TUNE SNAPS ON THE SPATS, AND AN IRON CHEF CHRISTMAS

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

1 Taken, Steven Spielperg;s 20-hour-long mini-series— that's a Brideshead plus an Eleanor and Franklin—about alien encounters, debuts on the Sci Fi Channel.

2 The world premiere of Franz Schubert's Die Winterreise as directed by choreographer Trisha Brown at Lincoln Center. Elsewhere— presumably imably in a dank dut nightclub— Britney Spears turns 21.

3 The play Crazyblackmuthaf self in previews at the Royal Court upstairs theater in London. (You're supposed to say, "Break "Baleg," but we say, also "Good want to

4 N.Y.C.'s Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens its 44th season. More opportunities to celebrate the human leg: the Rockettes and their Christmas Spectacular continue through January.

5 "Albrecht Durer and His Legacy," at the British Museum, in London. Maidens,

6 John Waters introduces the 1968 film Boom!, Joseph Losey's take on Tennessee Williams's The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Noel Coward, at Art Basel Miami Beach. (Leonard Maltin on Boom!: "fuzzy." Fuzz can be fun.)

7 Brit actor Henry Goodman, canned from The Producers (he briefly replaced Nathan Lane), takes on another schemer: Tartuffe. In previews at N.Y.C.'s American Airlines Theatre, with Brian Bedford.

8 The boundlessly creative Leonardo da Vinci, most people don't realize, completed only 12 paintings. See one of them (Portrait of the Lady with the Ermine) in the new show at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts.

10 Man returns home, finds mother has taken one of his friends as lover. It's Noel Coward's The Vortex, at London's Donmar Warehouse. (Additional transgressions available today on new albums by Killer Mike—of the OutKast crew— Ginuwine, and Busta Rhymes.)

11 Havana International Jazz Festival. Ceiling fans, scatting.

13 Tricked Out: N.Y.C.'s International Center of Photography shows Weegee's distorted photos of Marilyn Monroe, Nixon, others; and the residents of Ocean City, Maryland, compete in a Christmasdecorating contest judged by the chamber of commerce.

14 Here's hoping that new, young curator Jonathan P. Binstock injects the sometimes snoozy Corcoran Biennial, opening next week in Washington, D.C., with verve, zip.

15 "French Masterworks from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow," at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. Also: the new building at Fort Worth's Modern Art Museum is the first large, public commission in the U.S. for architect Tadao

16 All this month the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art—which sounds like an ironic name for a martini barshows work by painter-sculptor Tony Smith and his artist daughters, Kiki and

17 Wit and Crackers: Choreographer Mark Morris revives his Nutcracker parody, The Hard Nut, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and funny writer Roy Blount Jr. floats down the Mississippi in the PBS travelogue The Main

18 Theater of the Very Tall: Tommy Tune opens his big-band show, White Tie and Tails, at N.Y.C.'s new Little Shubert, and Sigourney Weaver stars in Neil LaBute's new play, The Mercy Seat, at N.Y.C.'s Acorn Theater.

19 Day No. 2 of the next Lord of the Rings film. Children across country change names to Treebeard.

20 The Iron Chef Christmasdessert episode (secret ingredient: strawberries) on the Food Network. Strange exclamations of surprise, and overacting.

21 Oscar hopefuls are screened at the Aspen Filmfest Academy Screenings. (Can we just say, Y Tu Mama?)

22 Ralph Fiennes turns 40. Aryan introspection moment.

23 Today: Hard Rock Cafe opens a museum in Orlando. Tomorrow: Vespers and the procession of the Virgin at Taos Pueblo. (Orlando and then Taos: wallow and rinse.)

25 The San Francisco Opera's production of The Merry Widow, on PBS, features new dialogue by Wendy Wasserstein. Champagne and Maxim's cancan dancers: more reliable than Christmas.

26 Things to Do Today: Return unwanted presents. Buy the 60thanniversary edition of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Remind self that the ego is the fountainhead of human greatness.

27 The Modern Language Association's annual conference and job fair for literature scholars, held this year in N.Y.C. Cattiness and backstabbing at the Marxist Studies cash bar.

28 Traditional mochi (rice cake) pounding to honor the new year, in Wailea, near Hilo, on the Big Island. Fire building starts at six A.M.

29 Day No. 3 of the movie Max, in which Noah Taylor (Shine) plays Adolf Hitler when he was a young, homeless painter. The controversy mounts.

30 Michael Nesmith turns 60. Babyboomers grow reflective and inward.

31 New Year's Resolution: read more Penguin Classics (all 1,300 of which will, over the next two years, be redesigned in gorgeous new editions). In stores today: the new Austen, Bronte, Dickens, others.

HENRY ALFORD